NWA Classics 24/7 #21

Remember NWA Classics 24/7, later renamed NWA On Demand, later gone up in smoke and sold to whoever when WWE came calling? I remember. That particular streaming service is no longer with us, but if you know where to look (that super secret streaming site with all the videos on it that nobody's ever heard of) most of it still seems to be floating around. So it's back to Houston we go!


Ric Flair v Wahoo McDaniel (Houston Wrestling, 7/12/85)

This was the date on the match that made the DVDVR Mid-South set, but apparently that one was actually from 7/26 and the one from On Demand is the proper 7/12 match. So if you were ever wondering, there you go. I'm on as close to a Flair kick right now as I've been in about a decade and that Horsemen footage put me in the mood to rewatch some of what he was doing outside Crockett. This was pretty great when they were lacing into each other. The arena isn't mic'd up too well so you don't always get to hear the thwack on strikes, but some of these Wahoo chops are audible regardless. Flair has great chops, he always has, but he can't swing that knife edge like Wahoo and he's never had anything close to the overhand, so for once he's basically outmatched. And that was kind of the story. Flair will try and go toe to toe, but not only does it never end well for him, it never even approaches level footing. He'll throw one chop, maybe two at a push, and Wahoo will shred him. Flair simply can't hang. So I guess he decides he'll use the ropes at every opportunity and just cheat his way to victory. Maybe it was deliberate on the wrestlers' part, maybe it was a story they were actively telling, maybe I'm just projecting, but Flair's best friend in this match was the ring rope and if not for that he'd have been fucked. He wasn't only using it to cheat either. There were a few points where Wahoo dropped him with a chop or a tomahawk and Flair only escaped by draping a foot over the rope. Late on he tried to take it to the floor, but that backfired as well and it was him who wound up with a bloody forehead. Still, the ropes weren't going anywhere and they were always there to bail him out. Flair winning via dodgy pinfall with his feet on the ropes wasn't exactly a rarity, but I don't remember it ever being built to quite like that. Maybe that "build" was coincidental. It probably was, honestly. Either way it worked and overall this was good stuff.